The invention relates generally to the field of power generation. More particularly, the invention relates to the field of generating power and electricity utilizing inertia of a moving vehicle.
Vehicles have been traveling on roadways and on open ground since the advent of the wheel thousands of years ago. Vehicles provide an efficient means of moving a load. Motorized vehicles, powered by internal combustion engines and the like, are of more recent invention and include vehicles for moving loads. Of still more recent advent are electric and hybrid electric vehicles.
No matter the vehicle type, whether for personal transportation, mass transportation, public transportation, freight transportation, recreation, or racing and the like, vehicles are designed to haul a load, whether a single person or many tons. The load carried by the vehicle can take on many forms. As used herein, “load” may mean a person, or a spare tire, a battery, a fuel tank, freight, and the like. The term load further encompasses portions of the vehicle itself such as passenger seats and even portions of the body of the vehicle which is carried by the frame of the vehicle. Particularly in the latter example, vehicles can be characterized by their sprung and unsprung portions. As used herein, unsprung may include components such as the wheel axles, wheel bearings, wheel hubs, tires, and a portion of the weight of driveshafts, springs, shock absorbers, and suspension links. Accordingly, the sprung portions would include portions of the vehicle positioned above the unsprung portions such as a cabin or passenger compartment. In this way, load may also include the sprung weight of the vehicle.
Many motorized vehicles rely on a battery to start an engine or to power on-board system components. Electric and hybrid electric vehicles especially rely on batteries to directly power the vehicle. There are a large variety of chemical and mechanical batteries used by vehicles. Batteries, though technically storing energy in a form other than electricity, effectively serve the function of providing electricity to the vehicle by converting the stored energy into electricity.
The batteries in vehicles may be charged by many different methods. Batteries may be charged by function of an internal combustion engine by translation of an alternator or generator. Batteries may be charged by wired connection to a power grid or other charging station. Batteries may be charged by photovoltaic cells or by regenerative braking. Each of these methods converts energy from another course into energy to be stored in the battery. For instance, in the case of the internal combustion engine, the energy from the fossil fuel is converted. In the case of regenerative breaking, kinetic energy from the moving vehicle is transferred to a battery as the vehicle is slowed. In the case of the wired connection, energy from wind, nuclear, oil, gas, solar, hydroelectric, coal power and other such generating facilities may be transferred to the vehicle's battery.
Because fossil fuels are becoming more scarce and/or more expensive, and also because of environmental concerns, there is a need in the art for vehicles that are powered by electric or hybrid-electric motivation. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for means of generating electric power for vehicles and automobiles that does not rely on fossil fuels and reduces dependency on connection to a power grid in order to power a vehicle or to charge a battery, or both.